Let Light tell the story

In her sermon on Sunday, Cari reminded us that “we are a people who are forgetful… we need people around us to help us remember the goodness of God… The stories we tell matter.”

I found a deep sense of connection with our denomination (the RCA or Reformed Church in America) over the idea of shared stories while serving as a delegate at the 2026 RCA General Synod two weeks ago. If you’re not familiar with that term, General Synod is basically the annual family meeting and democratic parliament for our entire denomination. Delegates prayerfully vote on the big decisions, budgets, and policies that guide all our churches forward together.

I’ll admit, I expected a denominational business meeting to be dry. Very dry. And while it was definitely long, it was, thankfully, not lifeless. Mixed in with the budget reports and voting segments were moments of laughter — like the Director of the Board of Benefits Services breaking into a short streamer routine after being dared to do an interpretive dance — tears, worship in many different languages, and, above all, welcome.

General Synod reminded me that the RCA has a rich culture of storytelling. For almost 400 years, the RCA has rooted itself in deep scholarship and biblical formation. It’s a community that treasures its history, yet trustingly follows the Holy Spirit into new places and seasons. Our denomination has carefully maintained archives dating back four centuries, and regularly retells stories of God’s faithfulness. I heard stories of the early Dutch settlers, of modern ministers who had been deeply formed by the RCA’s vibrant children’s curriculum, and of the faithful decades-long effort of male ministers before ordination was finally opened to women. General Synod also held space for the hard stories of our past and present — the denomination’s journey toward adopting the Belhar Confession and repenting of the sins of apartheid, the moments of significant institutional upheaval, and the lingering grief for churches no longer with us.

At Platt Park Church, we don’t pretend pain and injustice don’t exist, nor do we expect each other to “have it all together” to follow God. We are a community who does our best to honestly hold both the terribly hard things of this life and the fierce belief that we serve a good God, that His story is good, and that, because of Jesus, there is a good ending. I think this is why we found such a natural home in the RCA — a denomination where, for 400 years, imperfect men and women have faced incredibly dark moments, yet continued to believe that God’s story is stronger.

To close with Cari’s beautiful words from Sunday: “It was not the absence of darkness that caused the beauty to be seen. It was the presence of Light in the darkness that allowed the Light to tell the story.”

Thank you, Cari, and thank you all for being a community that allows the Light to tell our story.

With gratitude and joy,

Holly